Genesis 9: Blessing, Covenant, and Noah’s Sons

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things. But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it. And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man: Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind. But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.” (BSB)

Says God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (9:1; the speech that begins here runs through 9:7). The Hebrew is וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־נֹחַ וְאֶת־בָּנָיו, and God blessed Noah and his sons, and פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ, the three commands of 1:28, in the same order, after the same and God blessed. In 9:2 וּמוֹרַאֲכֶם וְחִתְּכֶם, the fear of you and the terror of you, fall on every living creature; the BSB has The fear and dread of you. בְּיֶדְכֶם נִתָּנוּ, into your hand they are given. The commands to subdue and rule in 1:28 are not repeated. 1:28 was already linked to the animals’ going out in the xref from 8:17, and is linked again here in the Hebrew xref from 9:1. See the Hebrew note.

Implies 9:1, and 9:7 at the close of this speech, renew the creation blessing of 1:28 as far as the shared wording goes. Noah stands where Adam stood only in that shared wording; fear takes the place of subdue and rule. The point is not pushed beyond what the words will bear.

Says In 9:3 כָּל־רֶמֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר הוּא־חַי, every moving thing that is alive, shall be food, as the green of plants; I give you everything. The BSB has Everything that lives and moves. The gift is limited in 9:4: אַךְ־בָּשָׂר בְּנַפְשׁוֹ דָמוֹ לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ, only flesh with its life, its blood, you shall not eat. The BSB’s meat with its lifeblood joins life (nefesh) and blood in one English word. In 9:5 one verb, אֶדְרֹשׁ, I will require, stands three times, where the BSB has require and demand an accounting. God requires it from the hand of every beast and וּמִיַּד הָאָדָם מִיַּד אִישׁ אָחִיו, from the hand of man, from the hand of each man his brother (the BSB has anyone who takes the life of his fellow man). His brother makes every killing a killing of kin. The verbal link to 4:10 is in the xref from 4:10 to 9:5–6 and in the Genesis 4 note on the brother’s blood, and is not restated at length. Deut 12:23 has the same three nouns, flesh, life, and blood, in the Hebrew xref from 9:4.

Uncertain Whether 9:3 first permits the eating of animals, or ratifies a practice already in use, is open. For a first permission: 1:29 gave plants for food, and 9:3 compares the new gift with that one. Objection: Abel already kept flocks (4:2). For ratification: animals were kept and offered before the flood. Objection: the text never says they were eaten. No lean is taken. Whether the ban on eating blood binds readers today is likewise open: it is given to Noah’s descendants before Sinai, and blood is named again at Acts 15:20; yet Acts 15 addresses table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers. No lean is taken, and no rule is laid down for readers. See the Hebrew notes and the Acts xref.

Says In 9:6 שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵךְ, whoever sheds the blood of man, בָּאָדָם, his blood shall be shed. The line turns on itself. The reason follows: כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה אֶת־הָאָדָם, for in the image of God He made man. The BSB has in His own image and mankind. The printed wording is the Masoretic Text, with medium confidence. Swete at 9:5 has one from the hand phrase where the Masoretic Text has two, and at 9:6 in return for his blood, with nothing that answers to ba'adam as by man, and I made for He made. The Samaritan main text has the Masoretic consonants at 9:6 and keeps the two phrases at 9:5. The grounds and objections are in the textual note; no lean is taken on which wording is original. Swete’s other differences in this speech—the added and have dominion over it at 9:1, and fill the earth at 9:7 for swarm—are Greek-note facts and box lines, not a separate textual unit.

Implies Human life is sacred because humans are made in God’s image. The כִּי clause grounds the penalty in creation, with 1:26–27, not in a law given later, and it is said after the flood, so the image still holds of every human being. That lean is the ground of the misuse note later in the chapter. See the xref from 1:27 to 9:6, and the Genesis 1 notes on the image and on tselem and demut.

Uncertain בָּאָדָם (ba'adam) may be by man, the agent (so the BSB), or for man, in exchange for the life taken. The sentence may be a standing mandate for civil authority, a permission that also limits revenge, or a statement of what will happen, proverbial or predictive. Objections: the verse names no court or office; it then, on the exchange reading, says nothing of who sheds the blood; no procedure is given; the verb is a plain future; the line stands among God’s commands (9:4–7). Early readers who take 9:6 judicially, or as arming the magistrate, are set out in the historical note; they do not fix the meaning. No lean is taken on the force of the sentence, and none on the preposition. The image is the ground; the application of the penalty is not decided here.

Says The speech closes in 9:7: But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it. The Hebrew has שִׁרְצוּ בָאָרֶץ, swarm in the earth, not spread out. The blessing of 9:1 is heard again as the speech ends.

Blessing, food, and blood (Genesis 9:1–7)

Bloodshed and the image of God (Genesis 9:5–6)

Minor variants

Says The printed text of this chapter is the Masoretic Text throughout. For 9:1–29 the English verse numbers agree with the Hebrew and with Swete. The unit that has its own textual note is 9:5–6 (from the hand of man twice, or once in Swete; by/for man and He made, or in return for his blood and I made). It is not repeated as a table here; the printed wording is the Masoretic Text, confidence medium, and no lean is taken on the original. At 9:21 the Masoretic Text has אָהֳלֹה, his tent, with the older spelling of his in a final he; the WLC, following the Leningrad Codex, prints it with no marginal reading. That is a box line. The Greek is otherwise different at a number of points, set out in the note on minor variants and in the Greek notes, and not used to reconstruct a Hebrew wording: at 9:1 it adds and have dominion over it; at 9:7 fill the earth for swarm; at 9:12 the Lord God for God; at 9:21 in his house for in his tent; at 9:22 and having gone out before told; at 9:24 the younger for the small; at 9:25 a household servant for a servant of servants; at 9:26 his servant and at 9:27 their servant for servant to them; at 9:27 in the houses of Shem for in the tents of Shem. At 9:28 the Greek has the Masoretic Text’s 350 years. Other notes in Swete, in plain words, include of your lives supplied in the margin of Alexandrinus at 9:5 by a corrector, and the first I will require written over an erasure; one manuscript lacking Lord at 9:12; one reading Ham for Canaan at 9:25 and 9:27; one lacking God at 9:26; one having his for their at 9:27; and one lacking and covered … backward at 9:23.

Uncertain Whether the Greek differences reflect other Hebrew or the translator is open. No lean is taken here, including on 9:5–6.

Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, “Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth—every living thing that came out of the ark. And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.” (BSB)

Says Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, and the speech of 9:9–11 begins: Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with them, every living thing that came out of the ark (9:8–10). The Hebrew of 9:9 is וַאֲנִי הִנְנִי מֵקִים אֶת־בְּרִיתִי אִתְּכֶם, and I, behold, I am establishing my covenant with you. מֵקִים is a Hiphil of qum, stand; 9:11 has וַהֲקִמֹתִי, and 9:17 הֲקִמֹתִי. The verb is establish, not karat, cut, the usual verb for making a covenant. Karat does occur in 9:11, of flesh: וְלֹא־יִכָּרֵת כָּל־בָּשָׂר עוֹד, and all flesh shall not again be cut off. The BSB has all life for all flesh, and of every kind later for בְּכָל־בָּשָׂר, which is not the word מִין. The promise is that there shall not again be a flood to destroy the earth (9:11). The same verb and my covenant were already heard at 6:18, in the xref from 6:18 to this passage and in the Genesis 6 note on the first naming of the flood and the covenant. Isa 54:9 takes up the not again of 9:11 as an oath and as the pattern of a second promise; that verbal link is in the Hebrew xref and is not a fulfilment claim.

Implies The covenant is God’s one-sided promise. God alone is the subject of establish; the partners include animals that can undertake nothing; no condition is stated for the promise to stand. The sign, in what follows, reminds God, and nothing is required of the creatures.

Uncertain Whether establish confirms a covenant already in place—made at creation, or promised at 6:18—or begins a new one is open. For confirming: the same verb and my covenant at 6:18. Objection: no earlier covenant with all flesh is narrated. The universal scope (all flesh, the earth) is the text’s. A Noahide-laws reading belongs to the history of interpretation and is not adopted here. No lean is taken on the kind of covenant.

Says A second speech runs from 9:12 through 9:16. This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. In 9:13 אֶת־קַשְׁתִּי נָתַתִּי בֶּעָנָן, my bow I have set in the cloud. Qeshet is the ordinary word for a bow; the BSB has My rainbow. The verb is perfect, I have set. When God clouds a cloud and the bow appears, וְזָכַרְתִּי אֶת־בְּרִיתִי, I will remember my covenant, and in 9:16 He will see it, to remember an everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh on the earth. 9:17 then says, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.” (BSB). The wording sign of the covenant and between me and you is shared with circumcision at 17:11, as the Hebrew xref sets out: there the sign is in the flesh and kept by Abraham’s house; here it is set in the cloud by God. Ezek 1:28 uses the bow in the cloud to describe the brightness around the glory of the Lord; that is a verbal link, not a claim that Ezekiel is explaining this chapter.

Implies The sign reminds God. He is the one who will see and remember. Nothing is required of the creatures for the covenant to stand. That is of a piece with the one-sided promise of 9:8–11.

Uncertain Whether the bow first appeared after the flood, or was an existing sight then given this meaning, is open. Calvin held that the arch had existed naturally and was consecrated into a sign; Keil held that its establishment as a sign presupposes that it appeared then for the first time. Those readings are in the historical note; they do not fix the meaning, and no lean is taken.

Uncertain Babylonian and Sumerian accounts of the flood’s aftermath also tell of a blessing after the flood, a word against another flood, and a remembered token. In the Eleventh Tablet the god blesses Ut-napishtim and his wife and they are made to dwell afar off; earlier the goddess raises a jewel and vows she will not forget it. A Sumerian text, as King reads it, has the gods bestowing immortality on Ziusudu; in King’s summary of the Semitic Version, Ea bids that Enlil should not again send a deluge to destroy mankind. The stories share features with 9:1–17 and also differ: this chapter’s blessing repeats the words of 1:28 rather than granting immortality, and the one God binds Himself by covenant to every living creature. How they relate is open. No derivation or dependence is claimed in either direction, and the background does not fix the meaning. For King’s source-critical framing, see the historical note on two accounts, pointed to once and not re-argued. The ending of the flood itself was treated in the Genesis 8 historical note and is pointed to. See the historical note on the aftermath.

The covenant's scope and sign (Genesis 9:8–17)

The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated. Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also declared: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem. May God expand the territory of Japheth; may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.” After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died. (BSB)

Says The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Ham was the father of Canaan (9:18). These three were the sons of Noah, and from them נָפְצָה כָל־הָאָרֶץ, the whole earth was scattered (9:19). The BSB has populated. The three names are those of 5:32, and 10:1 will open the account of their lines; those links are in the language note on the three sons and in the xref from 5:32 to 10:1, and Genesis 10 is pointed to, not treated. In 9:20 וַיָּחֶל נֹחַ אִישׁ הָאֲדָמָה וַיִּטַּע כָּרֶם: וַיָּחֶל is began; he is a man of the soil and planted a vineyard. The BSB has a man of the soil, proceeded to plant. He drank of the wine and became drunk, וַיִּתְגַּל, and he uncovered himself, in the midst of his tent (9:21; אָהֳלֹה, the older spelling, as in the box above). Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside (9:22). Shem and Japheth took a garment, walked backward, and covered their father’s nakedness; their faces were turned away, so that they did not see (9:23). Nakedness stands three times. When Noah awoke מִיֵּינוֹ, from his wine (the BSB has from his drunkenness), he knew what בְּנוֹ הַקָּטָן, his small son, had done to him (9:24).

Implies The sin theme of 8:21 continues after the flood. The first narrative after the covenant is not a scene of new innocence: it is drunkenness and a son’s offense. 8:21 and 8:22, and the seasons that will not cease, were treated in the Genesis 8 notes and are pointed to rather than restated.

Uncertain The syntax of 9:20 is open: Noah began to be a man of the soil, and planted; Noah, the man of the soil, began, and planted a vineyard; or began to plant. The first supplies a to be the text lacks; the others take began with a following finite verb, not an infinitive. How far Noah is at fault is likewise open: the text gives no verdict. No lean is taken.

Uncertain What Ham did is open, and each view is to be weighed with 9:23, where the brothers did not see. (a) He looked and told, a dishonor. Objection: what his small son had done to him (9:24) may suggest an act. (b) A sexual act against Noah, reading saw the nakedness by the idiom of Lev 18 and 20. (c) An act with Noah’s wife (Lev 18:7–8; 20:11). (d) Castration, a rabbinic reading. Against (b)–(d): the text says only saw and told. 9:23 is read by (a) as the answer to Ham’s looking, and by the others as covering what was done. Whether the small son of 9:24 is Ham or Canaan is a further open question. Early readings (Ham laughing; a dream; Ham as the middle son) are in the historical note; they do not fix the meaning. No lean is taken.

Says Noah said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” (9:25, BSB). עֶבֶד עֲבָדִים is a superlative, the lowest of servants. He also declared, and the speech of 9:26–27 begins, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem. Then, May God expand the territory of Japheth; may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. In the Hebrew, בָּרוּךְ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי שֵׁם, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem: the Lord is blessed, not Shem directly. Canaan is עֶבֶד לָמוֹ, servant to them. יַפְתְּ אֱלֹהִים לְיֶפֶת is a play on Japheth’s name, may God enlarge Japheth; the BSB has expand the territory of. וְיִשְׁכֹּן בְּאָהֳלֵי־שֵׁם, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, names no subject in the verb. The wording cursed and servant is shared with Josh 9:23 in a Hebrew xref of wording only; Joshua does not cite this chapter.

Implies The Lord, the God of Shem points ahead to Shem’s line (11:10–26), which leads to Abram. The words do not name Abram, but they name the Lord as Shem’s God, and the line of 11:10–26 runs from Shem to him.

It is historically documented that 9:25 was used to defend the enslavement of Africans, notably in American pro-slavery argument. That use is stated as general history; no particular work is named or quoted.

Implies The text gives that use no ground, and the use is rejected. The curse names Canaan, not Ham; Canaan’s descendants are placed in Canaan (10:15–19); the words are Noah’s, not spoken by God; all three sons are one family (9:19); and every human bears God’s image (9:6). These are each facts the text states, or that follow from it at once; together they leave the racial reading no footing. The question is not among the open views of what Ham did or why Canaan is named. See the misuse note, and the historical note, which reaches the same conclusion.

Uncertain Why Canaan, not Ham, is open: a word about Canaan’s descendants (cf. Lev 18:3, 24–28); Canaan’s own part; Ham punished through his youngest son; or Canaan as the child of view (c) at 9:22. Noah speaks, not God. In 9:27 he may be God or Japheth, and לָמוֹ may be singular or plural. No lean is taken.

Says After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died (9:28–29). Swete has the same figures. The numbers are read as the Genesis 5 note on the ages and the Genesis 7 note on persons and history already read the long lives of this book; they are not reopened here. Noah is a real person. 10:1 follows and is not treated.

Noah's drunkenness and Ham's act (Genesis 9:20–24)

The curse of Canaan and the blessing (Genesis 9:25–27)

The misuse of Genesis 9:25 for racial slavery

New Testament reading

Says Six New Testament texts are in view for this chapter, and only those six as new units. Acts 15:20 tells the Gentile believers to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood. The Greek shares αἷμα with Swete 9:4. Matt 26:52 has, For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Rev 13:10 speaks of dying by the sword. Neither shares a content word with Swete 9:6. Rev 4:3 has a rainbow (ἶρις) that encircled the throne, and Rev 10:1 a rainbow above an angel’s head: ἶρις, not the τόξον of Swete 9:13–16. 1 Tim 4:3 speaks of abstinence from certain foods; Swete 9:3 has εἰς βρῶσιν. The apparatus units, and the editions they name, are set out in the Greek note on form and are not restated here. The three xrefs below take up Acts 15:20, Matt 26:52, and Rev 4:3. Other New Testament texts that name Noah and the flood—Heb 11:7, and Matt 24:37–39—are reached through the Genesis 6 xrefs and are not taken up as new units here.

Implies Those New Testament texts treat Noah as a real person, as the Genesis 7 note on persons and history already sets out.

Uncertain Form agreement is not a claim about which text a writer used. Whether Acts 15:20 binds the command of 9:4 for readers today, and whether Matt 26:52 or Rev 4:3 draws on this chapter, remains open. No typological system is built from the links, and no lean is taken.

Genesis 9 in the New Testament